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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
SUNRISE, Fla. — Connor McDavid said he’s not thinking about his legacy as the Stanley Cup Final begins.
But as he answered questions at media day Friday, the Stanley Cup was all around him.
The actual Cup was glistening on a table about 50 feet away. To McDavid’s right was a large poster of Carolina‘s Rod Brind’Amour lifting it in 2006, the last time the Edmonton Oilers made the Final. In front of him was another poster, of Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby celebrating one of his three championships.
McDavid is considered the best player in the world but has yet to win the Stanley Cup. How a championship would validate his NHL career achievements isn’t paramount in his mind ahead of Saturday’s Game 1 against the Florida Panthers.
“It’s like what I said this last series about Dallas, I’ll say it again about Florida: They’re a great team and they require your full attention,” he said. “You’ve got to stay in the moment. You can only take what’s in front of you. And for us, that’s getting ready to go for tomorrow. Showing up and playing all of Game 1.”
McDavid leads the postseason with 31 points in 18 games. While he only has five goals, his 26 assists have him in range of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL single-postseason record of 31 set in 1988.
“There’s certain things in certain moments where there’s only one player in the world that can make that happen. And I think we can all agree on that,” teammate Leon Draisaitl said of McDavid.
Game 1 is a full-circle moment for McDavid when it comes to the Panthers arena: It’s where he walked on stage to accept an Oilers jersey as the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NHL draft.
“It’s kind of funny how it’s worked out,” McDavid said. “Honestly, it feels like it was yesterday that that night was happening, and here we are nine years later, it feels like it’s going back around.”
Before he was drafted, McDavid said he used to watch the Stanley Cup Final as a young fan.
“I just remember how exciting it was,” he said. “I think any time you would see the Stanley Cup on TV, it was always a special thing. Obviously as I’ve been in the league, I think I watched less. I mean, I’d still watch here and there, but when you’re as competitive as everyone is, it’s not always easy to see the Cup passed around.”
McDavid hadn’t been born the last time the Oilers won the Stanley Cup. It was 1990, after Gretzky left for Los Angeles but still considered part of the Edmonton dynasty of five Cups in seven seasons.
Paul Coffey was a defenseman for three of those winners. The Hockey Hall of Famer is now an assistant coach for the Oilers, and McDavid said their conversations have given him context on what it takes to win.
“As somebody that was not alive for that period of time, you feel like it was always just easy for them, but they went through a lot of adversity and a lot of heartbreak to get to where they got to as a team,” he said. “That certainly resonates with our group. We’ve gone through a lot to get to this point.”
That included a 3-9-1 start that necessitated a coaching change and had many wondering whether Edmonton would even be a playoff team.
“When you’re going through it, obviously it sucks,” he said. “But I think our group always believed that we were a good team. Even when things weren’t going well, I think we always believed that if we just stuck with it, things were going to turn around. I think we showed that we can go through adversity together and come out the other side.”